Popin' Cookin' - Taiyaki Odango Mochi Wagashi Kit Japanse DIY

Hello! I am back again with a DIY Japanese sweets kit review! This time we are looking at a Popin' Cookin' set from Kracie which is called 'Taiyaki Odango Mochi Wagashi'. Wagashi are Japanese confections, which with this set means you will make a small 3-item plate with:
- Taiyaki, Japanese fish cake. They can come savory or sweet. The one in this kit is sweet and chocolate filled.
- Dango, Japanese doughball. These also come in savory and sweet. The one in this kit is savory and called mitarashi dango (thanks for clarifying MORO !).
- Strawberry Mochi, Japanese doughball with inside either chocolate and strawberry or red bean paste. In this kit it's the chocolate.
- A soft drink

I got this kit gifted to me in last Secret Santa, of which you can find the unboxing here: BLOG #42278 .

Packaging

Normally these sets have their instructions English translated on the website of Kracie, but unfortunately this specific kit seems to be missing. I think this might have to do with some rebranding and/or changing the recipe as they changed the packaging of this set recently. Luckily for me, I made this one before (without doing a blog) and even with minimal Japanese knowledge you can guess what most things mean on the Japanese instructions as it uses a lot of symbols.

The contents

This set has quite a lot of contents! The outer packaging has plates that you can cut out.

There is also a cupholder for the soft drink cup, and 2 measure-parts for the rolled dango.

The kit itself has a ton of parts:
- Plastic tray that can get cut in 3 pieces.
- Plastic measuring spoon
- Wooden pick (earlier you sometimes had to provide it yourself with kits, so I was happy a more sturdy pick than the average one sold over here was included in the set)
- Plastic cup for the soft drink
- Dough powder mix
- Soft drink powder mix
- Taiyaki dough powder mix
- Chocolate powder mix
- Sweet Soy sauce powder mix
- Strawberry powder mix

Making the kit

As the strawberry is a jelly, that one has to be made first, so it can set during the time you make the other parts.

The toothpick for sure came in handy here!

Next up is the rice dough. I was very happy the structure quickly became rice-like as I had experiences in the past with other kits where it was way too wet and hard to work with.

No pictures of the rolling, as I was already washing my hands 100 times during the making of this kit, so I could take pictures.

Except for the last one, I was quite pleased to have them similar sized!

You need to keep a bit apart and flatten it for the strawberry mochi. Unfortunately I couldn't make it flatter than this, because the dough would fall apart. I was already dreading a bit to put together the strawberry mochi with this as a base...

Next up, the taiyaki dough!

And now for the most magical part of this kit: They are going inside the microwave, where it will actually mimick how dough rises!

Ta-dah! I was very happy with how fluffy and the right shape they looked!

Next up was the chocolate sauce.

The strawberry mochi could now get assembled and everything I expected to go wrong...went wrong.

The best I could make from it was a taco. I'm not sure what I could have done different to make the mochi a better structure. It really wouldn't flatten more and making it more wet also wasn't going to work.

Luckily, assembling the taiyaki went a lot smoother and I'm confident to say that this one is definitely a lot better than the previous taiyaki I made in a kit! The dough was perfectly risen, I still had enough chocolate for the filling and the air bubbles were minimal.

Now to make the sauce for the dango, which I think was a combination of soy and honey when it comes to taste.

Dipping the dango went surprisingly well!

So my end result of the dango I was quite content with!

I forgot to make a picture of the mixing of the soda, but it was literally pouring the powder into the cup, then water on top of it, and done.

End result

Looks-wise, I definitely put together a better plate than the last time I tried to make this kit. The rice dough was actually sticking together and if it wasn't for the eyesore of the Strawberry Mochi taco falling apart, I would have almost nailed this kit!

The taste

The taiyaki was really good, and I don't say that a lot with these kits as most of them are really sweet for my taste. The dough was perfectly light-sweet and the chocolate was decent quality chocolate. The taiyaki was still a bit warm when I ate it.

The dango I had some mixed feelings about, as the sauce was really nice, but I didn't like the structure of this mochi very much.

The strawberry mochi was eh, but I am personally not really a fan of the combination of strawberry and chocolate, so this could depend on person.

The soft drink was also eh for me, as it was a super sweet bubble gum flavor and tasted quite artificial.

Considering I really like 1 out of the 4, that is a really high score for me! It happened a lot of times in the past that with such a set I only ate 1 or 2 bites from every piece. The 2 of the 4 I rated 'eh', might be to someone elses tastes nice. With the last one left, the dango, it's the only food in this set where I never tasted the real life version of it, so it might be that the real one also has a structure I do not like and could be a personal thing. I have eaten mochi quite a bit, but I'm not sure how different it is from the actual dango dish.

Recommendable?

Well, as with all these kits they are more about the fun than the taste. This DIY kit is a bit more complicated than your average one, so I wouldn't recommend it for beginners. I doubt that even if I would try it for a third time if I can manage to make the strawberry mochi better. Anyhow, a fun and recommendable DIY sweets kit, especially because of the microwave magic, but not recommended for beginners.

I have gotten the question in multiple blogs if I could translate the ingredients of the food I review. This is not possible for me, as my Japanese is not that good. If you are interested in helping me out with translating, please shoot me a message!

Thanks for reading my blog! My next blog will be another DIY sweets kit, this time the Popin' Cooking Crepe set! Hope to see you there!

Moro (hace 5 días) #54336478The sauce for your extremely cute tiny mitarashi dango is indeed a sweet soy sauce. It's pretty much a 30/70 split of soy sauce and honey. A little odd at first but I really like it. I ate some mochi once with mitarashi dango-sauce "jelly" filling and they were pretty addictive, it was hard not to eat the whole package.
Those taiyaki look pretty authentic for being so small and having been made from a kit like this!

Thanks for that info, I will add it to the review! I also did not know the dango with sweet soy had a specific name (~learn something new everyday~). :) The sauce was quite similar to one we have over here called kecap manis, I have no clue if that is available in the USA as well, but we use it quite a lot in our stir-fries here.

And yeah, the taste of the taiyaki was pretty authentic as well!!! I could eat a whole set just consisting of those things if Kracie were to make them. :D

The sauce for your extremely cute tiny mitarashi dango is indeed a sweet soy sauce. It's pretty much a 30/70 split of soy sauce and honey. A little odd at first but I really like it. I ate some mochi once with mitarashi dango-sauce "jelly" filling and they were pretty addictive, it was hard not to eat the whole package.

Those taiyaki look pretty authentic for being so small and having been made from a kit like this!

lesser-robot-cat (hace 6 días) #54229771I'm eating chocolate at this very minute and unhappy with it because this review makes me want a Poppin' Cooking more. I could eat their doughy candies forever! The texture is the best!

Oh no! I mean, an actual chocolate bar is so gooood. Did you try the crepe set yet? It's more thin dough, but so nice~

noctisity (hace 7 días) #54194848I always look forward to your reviews for these food sets, so thanks for another one! I use grab a few to make with my younger siblings since they’re fun little projects, so nice to see the ones this time around actually taste pretty decent.

That's nice to hear, thank you! ^^ And yeah, Kracie seems to be improving the recipes of some (along with changing their packaging), so let's hope for more that taste good. :)

I always look forward to your reviews for these food sets, so thanks for another one! I use grab a few to make with my younger siblings since they’re fun little projects, so nice to see the ones this time around actually taste pretty decent.